Editing French Foreign Legion (section)

===Franco-Prussian War 1870===
{{Main|Franco-Prussian War|Alsace-Lorraine}}

According to French law, the Foreign Legion was not to be used within [[Metropolitan France]] except in the case of a national invasion,<ref>Martin Windrow, p. 5, ''Our Friends Beneath the Sands'',  {{ISBN|978-0-297-85213-1}}</ref> and was consequently not a part of Napoleon III's Imperial Army that capitulated at [[Battle of Sedan (1870)|Sedan]]. With the defeat of the Imperial Army, the [[Second French Empire]] fell and the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] was created.

The new Third Republic was desperately short of trained soldiers following Sedan, so the Foreign Legion was ordered to provide a contingent. On 11 October 1870 two provisional battalions disembarked via sea at [[Toulon]], the first time the Foreign Legion had been deployed in France itself. It attempted to lift the [[Siege of Paris (1870–1871)|Siege of Paris]] by breaking through the German lines. It succeeded in retaking [[Second Battle of Orléans (1870)|Orléans]], but failed to break the siege. In January 1871, France capitulated but civil war soon broke out, which led to revolution and the short-lived [[Paris Commune]]. The Foreign Legion participated in the suppression of the Commune,<ref>{{cite book|last=Lepage|first=Jean-Denis G.G. |title=The French Foreign Legion: An Illustrated History|year=2008|publisher=Mc Farland & Co. Inc|location=US|isbn=978-0786432394|page=60|url=https://www.google.ie/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=The+French+Foreign+Legion%3A+An+Illustrated+History&btnG=}}</ref> which was crushed with great bloodshed.